Final Thoughts

For me personally, the ARC Midi R2 is the right case at the right time. Josh from Fractal Design really knew deep down I would love it - I have no doubt about that now, as I really do enjoy the silence it offers and the style it offers, as it sits six feet to my left. As the chassis comes out of the box, it offers anything a builder would want. Plenty of room for various drives, removable hard drive bays, and a way to add in drives in another location once those are removed - the list just keeps going. The trio of 140mm fans offers a great mix of sufficient amounts of airflow, and with the fan controller set to 12V, the noise generated is just so slightly audible, in the 34 dB range. On top of that you are getting Fractal Designs thicker and sturdier cases, and you get the black and white theme that will match any build, no matter the color.

It is rare that I get this excited about a mid-tower chassis, and yes I know you can get more features such as side fan access, or maybe a hot swap dock for drives, but this isn't about that. The idea here is to give users a smaller sleek and sexy outward appearance, while still shaking things up on the inside. The way the front is designed with the bezel taking on the cooling is genius, and makes water cooling in the front of the chassis much simpler to do. Having the mesh be removable in front of it means not only will the case stay clean, but if you stay on top of it, the fans and radiator won't get dirty either and you can stretch out the cleaning of the loops as well. I also like that the top allows for a dual radiator, but there is plenty enough of a shift to the motherboard tray that you can add thin radiators with push/pull, or thicker radiators with a single fan and still not run into the memory or phase heat sinks.

There is not one thing about this chassis that I can put in the negatives column, and I can usually find something. Everything just fits, goes together easy, and even after removing a main structural components in most cases, the ARC Midi R2 stands strong as if the HDD bays were never there in the first place. The chassis covers all the needs of most users in looks, silence, options, and features, so the last category is sometimes the deal breaker. This is where the pricing comes in, and I will definitely back this chassis for some time to come, because even in cost, the $109.99 price point keeps this chassis in range for most people. Coming from someone who gets $600 to $700 cases a couple times a year, the ARC Midi R2 is making me rethink my TJ11 build (why do I need something this big, when the Midi R2 is so awesome?).

The ARC Midi R2 is just that kind of a case; it will surprise you while you smile in anticipation of the final product, as you build in this chassis. It has truly been a pleasure building my system in this chassis, and it will come highly recommended for anyone looking to water cool in an aesthetically pleasing mid-tower with plenty of room to cool loads of components under water, or shipped as-is, it can keep up with the best, especially at this solid price.

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